Big Slab, Big Cranes

After one of the wettest Decembers in history work progresses daily at our construction site. Much of it these past several weeks has taken place out of sight as the workers have been busy tearing up the concrete pad inside the portion of the Ministry Center that was salvageable. Huge trenches now mark the old floor of the Deep End. Inside these trenches pillars will be placed to support the new construction.

The pad has been poured and now that the cement is down you can get a good idea of the scope of our project. This week the workers began to dig the trenches for the final footers to be poured parallel to Venning Street. In fact, cement trucks were rolling again today to fill the first of these trenches.

On Monday, 28 January, our project takes another leap forward. Two cranes will be brought to the construction site; one crane will be used to build the second crane which we will use to raise the steel structure of our building. We anticipate steel to begin going up as soon as the crane is assembled. In order to build this phase of the project we will need to both close Venning for a brief time as well as redirect traffic. Please note these dates:

Monday & Tuesday, January 28-29, Venning will be closed at our property line while the cranes are brought in and assembled.

Wednesday, 30 January through the spring, Venning will be a one-way street with traffic flowing from Simmons Street to Whilden Street.

Also being built alongside the reconstruction of our building is a columbarium. As we’d said last month the columbarium will be in the recently cleared space in the courtyard outside of the Historic Church and Sams Hall. We are anticipating the final design plans from the columbarium company this week. Once they are received we will work with Thomas & Hutton to create the construction drawings.

Lastly, thank you! Thank you for your prayers. Thank you for your encouragement. Thank you for your commitment to our Lord, to our parish, and to our community. These past nine months have been some of the best and richest months in the life of our parish. It is so encouraging to see the faithfulness of both our parish community and our Lord. It is a blessing to be a part of the Lord’s renovating work – both physically and spiritually.